Archaeologists have found a cache of the first Chinese currency in Japan

100 thousand coins were found thanks to the builders

During the preparation of the area for the construction of a plant in Japan, more than 100 thousand ancient coins were found. Some of them were considered by archaeologists to be of Chinese origin and dated back to more than 2,000 years ago. There were bundles of more than a thousand coins. All of them bore traces of a rice straw mat, experts said. The results of dating the find are preliminary; the coins have been sent to the laboratory for further study.

An archaeological sensation during excavations that scientists carried out before the construction of a new plant in the Japanese prefecture of Gunma in the city of Maebashi was a cache with more than 100 thousand ancient coins. According to Western media, among them are the rarest ones – for example, the Chinese “Ban Liang”, which was the first known single currency of China. The find was most likely made in 175 BC and has a diameter of 2.3 centimeters and a thickness of 1 millimeter. The square hole in the middle measured 7 millimeters on each side. The characters “Ban” and “Liang” were engraved on the surface.

The treasure was found in an archaeological site covering about one square kilometer, which also contains the Sosha Mounds, the ruins of the San’o Temple and the Ueno Kokubunji Temple, and according to experts, it was the central part of Kozuke Province, the predecessor of Gunma Prefecture, from around the time Kofun (mounds) until the end of the 7th century (Ritsuryo period).

The treasure also reportedly contains other coins, the age of which archaeologists determine to be the 7th – 13th centuries, that is, some finds are more than two thousand years old. The most interesting thing is that the “artifacts” already in the treasure were arranged according to age – in stacks, about 100 coins in each, they were tied with bundles of straw, called sashi.

Scientists suggest that the treasure was buried by one of the influential residents of nearby houses during the war that happened then. The time of the cache dates back to the Kamakura period (1185-1333). This historical era was named after a small village that turned into a city and later became the center of the first Japanese shogunate. Clashes between the Minamoto, Fujiwara and Taira clans ended in the victory of the latter, removing the Fujiwara clan from power.

The area where the treasure is located, according to municipal officials, is quite large – a meter by 60 centimeters. But what surprised archaeologists most of all was the number of “stacks” of sasha tied up – 1060. The rope was passed through the hole in the middle of the coins.

Traces of straw found in the excavation suggest that before burial the “bundles” were wrapped in a straw (rice) mat, which decayed over time.

So far, 334 coins from the treasure have been examined and at least 44 types have been identified, ranging from 175 BC to 1265 (during the reign of the Southern Sunn dynasty). Archaeologists call the latest coins minted “new”, and they indicate that the treasure, with a high degree of probability, was buried during the Kamakura period. However, the dating of the time the cache was created may change after the study of all the coins is completed.